We're a rolling strolling bunch of rag tag folk.
We make theatre, music, festivals and other bits and pieces in between.
We're as likely to be found in the back of a country pub as a fancy theatre.
We are always up for a chat.

Monday, 23 June 2014

Sherlock Holmes: A Working Hypothesis

We seem to make two types of
shows –

Folky
musical shows which make everyone cry

Adaptations
of stories which make everyone laugh

In the middle of Christmas Carol,
which falls in to the latter category, we got a review saying how our Scrooge
(Haydon Wood) and Marley (John Holt Roberts) would make an excellent Holmes and
Watson. Said reviewer wasn’t wrong.

Now, 7 months later, we are going
on sale with our biggest show yet. A six week run of a new version of Sherlock
Holmes in York’s beautiful council chamber, buried deep in the Guildhall. This
isn’t a show in the back of a pub. Written by me (Alex) and directed by Tom, this is a show with around 7,000 tickets for
sale. I’m not entirely sure how we got here – I’m going to blame Brian Hook (Producer) for
now.We’re working with Hartshorn
Hook Productions from Manchester, Pegasus Theatre from Oxford and in association
with our good friends at York Theatre Royal. It feels like a pretty big deal
for us.

Sherlock has taken over our
nation – it’s had a huge resurgence. Like many other people, I’m sure, my
interest started with the Guy Ritchie films and later the brilliant BBC
versions. Now, I’ve read every Sherlock Holmes story I can get my hands on.

It’s interesting how different
kinds of shows come along. Shows like Beulah and BABYLON come from some
instinct, some nebulous idea that you strike upon and try and chisel out of all
the other stuff that’s flying around. Adaptations, though, are trying to chisel
out someone else’s idea. What we see in Sherlock isn’t new or different to what
other people see, it’s just maybe about us trying to carve it out differently.

Sherlock Holmes: A Working
Hypothesis isn’t a version of one Sherlock story. It takes elements from lots
of places, ideas from lots of encounters, and blends them together. So we end
up with something new, made up of lots of bits of other things. One of the most
interesting things is exactly what makes this project possible – the very fact
that Sherlock Holmes has had such a resurgence. And, for me, there is something
fascinating about why we are obsessed with him – a man who can solve seemingly
anything, who can turn his hand to fixing everything; a man who, when we are
stumbling in the dark, can find a little bit of light. The fact that this
character has become a part of so many of our households is fascinating. He’s
almost like a superhero, just without a cape and a lycra suit. Someone we can actually look to for help. Unfortunately, I think that is somewhat indicative of our society now - we are looking for help from outside, rather than trying to fix it ourselves.

So our version is somehow about
superheroes, it’s somehow about friendship and companionship, it’s somehow
about bringing people together to fix something rather than relying on other
people and, of course, it’s about a good old mystery and adventure. It also has
a damn big sword fight and a free glass of wine.

We hope we aren’t copying
Cumberbatch and Downey Jnr. We hope we’re making something special, and live –
something which turns Conan Doyle’s superb stories in to one of those plays
which make you laugh, and also feel a little warmer and closer that when you
came in. And one where you've helped to fix something along the way.